Stocks steady on hopes for diplomacy in Ukraine

SINGAPORE : U.S. stock futures bounced on Friday and selling pressure eased in Asian share markets after the U.S. Secretary of State agreed to a meeting with Russia's foreign minister, raising hopes for a diplomatic solution to the East-West standoff over Ukraine.

"It's better news than what we had yesterday," said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne."But we've seen diplomatic talks go nowhere before, and the troops are still on the border, so risks remain." Overnight, safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen and Swiss franc climbed to two-week highs on the dollar and they retreated a little bit in Asia trade. [FRX/]

St. Louis Fed president James Bullard on Thursday reiterated his call for the Fed funds rate to be raised to 1per cent by July to combat stubbornly high inflation and Fed funds futures price about a 1/3 chance of a 50 bps hike next month to begin.

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